It is now clear, Trump figured this out and took full advantage of it.

[fightforfreedom]

In America our system has lots of rules that are not backed by laws. Trump who has no morals does not care about rules. When he sees a rule that is not backed up by a law he will break that rule, happily.

Trump searched for corrupt people, greedy people who have no morals like himself and put them in charge of our government agencies. When they were in place they would break rules in order to protect, pay back Trump.

We now know this happened at the IRS. It happened at the CDC, the Justice Dept. etc.

Trumps infamous legacy will include the creation of many new laws that will back up the rules we already have in place.

[Walleye]

1. I hope that will be the result. Up until now we have depended on the voters

We have presumed the common sense of the American electorate. We can’t do that anymore

[Walleye]

5. He was a very wise man

[mobeau69]

12. Not sure it should be attributed to Lincoln so I deleted. It's early! LOL.

Common sense is as rare as genius. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

I'll stand by this attribution though. LOL

[Walleye]

13. Well he was a very wise man too

[emulatorloo]

10. I read an article yesterday that says the omnibus bill has a lot of stuff in it to prevent

another January 6th that both Republican and Democratic Senators are behind.



https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/12/20/electoral-count-act-reform-omnibus-trump-2024/

Opinion The GOP is quietly ‘Trump-proofing’ our system behind his back

By Greg Sargent
December 20, 2022 at 11:56 a.m. EST

Nobody tell Donald Trump, but Republicans in the Senate appear poised to join Democrats in protecting our democracy from exactly the election subversion he attempted in 2020 — and would surely attempt again in 2024 if given the chance.
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The omnibus spending bill has been released, and buried inside it are provisions that would reform the Electoral Count Act of 1887, which governs how Congress counts presidential electors. Trump’s effort to subvert his presidential reelection loss exploited many weaknesses in the ECA that would be fixed if the omnibus passes, as expected.

Strikingly, all this is happening with little noise from right-wing media or MAGA-loyal lawmakers. A bipartisan group of senators negotiated these reforms for months with the support of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), and they will likely be backed by many or even most GOP senators. Trump himself has been surprisingly mute.

Yet the fact remains: GOP senators who support these ECA reforms are implicitly acknowledging the ugliest realities of what Trump attempted in 2020. They are acknowledging the true nature of the threat that Trump or an imitator might pose in 2024.


Just about every main ECA reform in the omnibus responds directly to what Trump did. It would clarify that the vice president’s role in counting electors is ceremonial. (Trump pressured his vice president to halt the count.) It would raise the threshold for Congress to nullify legitimate electors. (Trump got dozens of Republicans to object to Joe Biden’s electors.)

Would also prevent state things like fake electors.

So fingers crossed here.

[2naSalit]

16. +1

[betsuni]

3. But Hillary got paid for a speech, we kept hearing Wall Street Wall Street corrupt corrupt

establishment status quo corporate. What was the purpose of all that, I wonder. Hope they're happy.

[Walleye]

6. Remember no TPP. What was the point of that?They made it such a big deal

Putin and the Russians really fuck with our system

[Effete Snob]

8. Yes I remember that very well

And we have not yet paid the full cost of our withdrawal from that process.

Naturally, the DUers who were hair-on-fire upset by TPP are no longer here.

[Walleye]

9. I guess it was our Brexit. And look how that worked out

[Effete Snob]

15. Good analogy

And same oppositional forces to anything which strengthens relations and economies among the western alliance.

It's interesting how early we had "Ukrainians are Nazis" posters here at DU:

https://upload.democraticunderground.com/1016102968

https://www.democraticunderground.com/10026828747

https://upload.democraticunderground.com/10025512991

[betsuni]

11. Yes, we were supposed to believe TPP was a diabolical plot by President Obama

to screw over American workers, that the loss of manufacturing jobs was a diabolical NAFTA plot by President Clinton and the loss of manufacturing jobs didn't actually begin in the seventies. Not Russians who started all that, they just used what was there already.

[Johnny2X2X]

4. Trump only deals with corrupt people

It's typical of criminals, anyone that is squeaky clean cannot be trusted and they are a threat because leverage over them is hard to get.

He corrupted every facet of our government in ways that we'll still be discovering decades from now. He put literally thousands of criminals and con artists in charge of hundreds $Billions of taxpayer dollars, we'll never know how much was stolen.

[GenXer47]

18. and incompetent!

Judge Cannon's an example - she know she owes him for life because she'd never make it to the bench on merit.

[McKim]

24. Remember.......

Remember: “Only the best people!”

[malaise]

7. And the he used projection

For deflection

[yorkster]

14. He put corrupt grifters in charge of agencies and

everywhere in government where possible. Pompeo, Zinke, Mnuchin, and on and on. Corruption on a massive scale. Who orchestrated this behind the scenes? Jared, Stephen Miller? All those terrible choices waiting in the wings...

[Fullduplexxx]

17. McCarthy is threatening the gop senate over gov spending package

[Nasruddin]

19. Dealing with psychopaths

Trumps infamous legacy will include the creation of many new laws that will back up the rules we already have in place.

This is the almost inevitable consequence of dealing with a psychopath. You can use this consequence as a way of determining whether your problems stem from dealing with one, or not. Maybe it's why contracts for simple deals are pages and pages long full of bizarre continencies - a psychopath has been there and done that.

[gab13by13]

20. There is nothing stopping DOJ

from getting Trump's taxes and prosecuting him for tax fraud.

300 million dollars in deductions with next to no paperwork to back it up. maybe I will claim a million dollar donation to charity with no paperwork.

[fightforfreedom]

22. Also the IRS should do their job and investigate.

The IRS went on vacation while Trump was president. A 4 year vacation.

[Beachnutt]

23. He set a GREAT example for folks to follow

and showed us that the irs is harmless.
Just claim whatever you want, there is no recourse.

For the rich.

[spooky3]

32. There's a statute of limitations unless he omitted income, left

Something off the return, etc. It’s generally 3 years but specific circumstances may allow 6 years or more.

https://www.americanbar.org/groups/business_law/publications/blt/2017/08/06_wood/

[SKKY]

21. This is going to turn into a He said, She said between Trump...

...and Mazars, the accounting firm that does his taxes. If they're smart, there are probably tons of receipts in the form of documents he lied on. Taxes are what got Al Capone. Probably gonna be what gets TFG as well.

[sarisataka]

25. Is this the same Trump

That for years we have discussed how stupid he is? All that time he was really a criminal mastermind worthy of being a Bond villain?

[pandr32]

29. That is the only part of his brain and character that developed...

..."criminal mastermind". Everything else is junk.

[StClone]

26. Trump also broke laws.

[fightforfreedom]

28. Yes he did.

[pandr32]

30. He has no regard for laws, except for applying to others.

[aggiesal]

27. No Morals, No Honor, powerful combination. n/t

[YoshidaYui]

31. Well now he will pay for all of his crimes

once he is indited, convicted and sentenced... especially for the insurrection, that should be about 20 years he will be behind bars if he even lives that long. Don't worry, Once Trump is dead, Qanaon will have him rising from the dead in three days.

[Prairie_Seagull]

33. In typical "mob boss" and oligarchic fashion I believe he has

kompromat on some of his perceived adversaries and, and,,, most of his high level cronies. Rather per-existing or created. It's one of two motivations that I can see that would so completely bind some and keep quiet others to/about him.

Kompromat and/or financial gain.

[Historic NY]

34. I just can't quite figure out the cult worship thing...

the closest we ever had was George Washington, and it's because he actually earned it. They wanted to make him a King, and he refused, he had enough sense to say we just fought against one.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

35. TFG nearly destroyed our democratic form of government

If TFG ever becomes POTUS again, we can forget about future elections

[Ohioboy]

36. I don't think the Founding Fathers ever imagined someone as low as Trump

Say what you will about the Founders, but I do believe they honestly tried to create a system that would be hard to usurp from within by a would be tyrant. However, that system of checks and balances requires a certain level of morality and honor. When you get a guy like Trump and combine him with dishonest republicans willing to do his bidding things don't work so well.

[calimary]

37. Let's hope so, anyway.

I hope we’ve all learned to be more cautious and vigilant.

[musclecar6]

38. I think

For all the many possible crimes our favourite Manchurian Cantelope has committed, for me what really stands out, is leading an insurrection against our country so that he can stay in power. For this alone, I think he needs to be indicted, tried and hopefully convicted and if so he should go to prison for the rest of his life for this outrageous crime against us.

Anything else, if he is convicted, is a travesty and leaves the door wide open for future despicable people like him to try and pull the same kind of stuff.